Rye Besan Tortilla Recipe

Tortillas are a great food to know how to make from scratch. It is healthy for both your grocery budget, as well as for you. Make your own with good quality wholesome ingredients and without the use of any additives or processed ingredients or packaging.

A friend gave me a plain flour tortilla recipe about a year ago. It is a great recipe that she had adapted from a Donna Hay recipe. We used it regularly for 6 months or more until I decided I would like to try it with some less refined flour. I also wanted to incorporate some spices into the mixture. I did not realise once I had that idea stuck in my mind just how many versions I would make! The type of flour that you use has a huge impact on the texture of the resulting tortilla.

I began exploring different flours when my mum gave me a wide variety of different flours to try. She had collected them from a local woman at a Farmers Market. The collection included Besan flour (chick pea) and Maize flour. While I loved the flavor of the maize flour tortillas, the chick pea (besan) flour had a much nicer texture.

Besan flour is also known as gabanzo bean, gram flour, or chick pea flour. It is high in folate, and has a high fibre, protein, thiamin (B1), and iron content. (Via the dietary information the on package). It is gluten free and the brand that I used is stone ground.

Making your own tortillas is an easy way to reduce the cost of a meal. It uses basic pantry ingredients. The cost is very little in comparison to a store purchased pack. Chickpea flour is generally available in health food stores and good delis.

While testing this recipe I also experimented with the use of coconut oil, ghee and finally returned to butter as the best to use for a consistent texture and dough.

This recipe is the one that we enjoy the most. I love the earthy, chick pea flavor and the texture that the rye lends these tortillas. They pair beautifully with tacos.

Have you tried making your own tortillas?

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{ 1 comment… add one }

I love the look of these. I’ve been playing around with tortillas and all sorts of flatbreads lately. My favourite uses Masa Harina which is a type of corn flour – the flavour is great. I’m also seriously considering a tortilla press Well, I’m off to try this combo. Thanks.